Shanaye La Beaud is a creative and driven professional eagerly exploring the learning and development space. She currently serves as the Talent Development & Acquisition Manager at Elephant Insurance. She is passionate about building strong leaders and making development opportunities available to people at all levels in their career journey. Shanaye is a graduate of VCU’s Executive MBA program (2019) and holds a SHRM-CP certification (2020). While still early in her learning and development career (3 yrs.) she also has 7 years of call center management experience. Shanaye loves to share knowledge and find unique ways to help others discover new insights.

Jose Cervantes is the Director of Learning and Development for Customer Operations at Sentara Health Plans.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Information Technology with concentrations in Decision Support Systems, Operations Management and Leadership.  Jose spent the first half of his professional career in IT and healthcare operations.  After holding various leadership positions in these respective areas, he made a career shift to learning and development.  He found a passion in helping train and coach people to succeed at their current roles, while developing and inspiring them to grow beyond.  Today, he leads a team responsible for executing that mission by supporting thousands of Sentara employees throughout the state of Virginia.

In addition to his role with Sentara, Jose is a certified professional coach, trainer, speaker and entrepreneur.  With a presence across the United States, the Caribbean and South America, Jose offers a holistic approach to helping people achieve life and professional goals.

Rodney Steppe has years of experience in various areas including human resources, instructional design, and technology to name a few. He had his first experience in facilitation years ago and looks forward to doing more in adult learning. Rodney enjoys giving back to the community. He has volunteered for multiple organizations in Richmond and recently began volunteering for a hospice organization. Rodney always welcomes the opportunity to meet new people and try new things.

Rodney received his Masters of Education - Human Resource Development and a Bachelors of Arts in Spanish from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Erin Chancellor is an instructional designer with a passion for providing learning opportunities to help people better their careers. She dives into needs assessment, analytics, and project management with enthusiasm, and strives to make learning easily accessible to everyone in this digital age. Her most rewarding work comes from a blend of instructional design, marketing, branding, and building relationships. Currently working in enablement at a software development company, she pulls on her strengths to deliver with excellence at work while also building an authentic personal brand online.

Erin holds a master’s degree in Education from Virginia Commonwealth University with an endorsement to teach English to speakers of other languages, and she has appeared as a guest speaker on numerous podcasts and webinars in the global eLearning and instructional design space. When not developing curriculum, chatting with SMEs, and designing engaging eLearning courses, Erin can be found tending to her plants and flowers, cultivating the green thumb she inherited from her grandmother.

Jennifer received her B.A. in Psychology and her M.Ed. in Counseling from The College of William and Mary, her M.A.T. in Elementary Education from Christopher Newport University, and her Ed.S. from The George Washington University in Leadership & Administration. 

Jennifer is a creative spirit who loves photography, writing, and the culinary arts. She is a self-proclaimed “labaholic” who has always shared her home with at least one lab. She considers herself to be a lifelong learner and she loves the opportunity to learn new things and meet new people.

Lauren Philip, CPTD has had the benefit of navigating in diverse and multicultural environments, having worked in several Caribbean islands as well as the United States.  She is the Director of Human Resources and System Initiatives at the Virginia Community College System.  As the Principal Consultant at LP Consulting, she has worked with several organizations, leading change initiatives that help business partners increase their competitive advantage by leveraging their human capital. 

Lauren holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Human Resource Management and Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and a Master’s degree in Education - Human Resource Development from Virginia Commonwealth University.